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Topic: Large Venini bowl, help please (Read 1199 times)

Hi. I recently found this large Venini bowl and know little about it. Its 14"x9.5"x4" and is acid etched in the pontil Venini Murano and has small cuts all around the external surfaces. Can any give me any info on when this was made and by who etc? Thank you, Wolfie

Battuto was revived by Venini after its reappearance in France in the 1900's. Carlo Scarpa, Tobia Scarpa, Ludovico Diaz de Santillana all used it for Venini, and I believe that Laura Diaz de Santillana uses for another company now. That means it was used for over 80 years.

That looks very like the acid mark Venini used in the 30's, which would make it Carlo Scarpa. A quick scan of my books didn't reveal the design but I'll look again later.

Anyone more reliable (at least about Venini) than me who can shed more light?

David

PS Just found the same shape in Venini: Catalogue Raisonne, p. 136, Carlo Scarpa, 'Sommerso,' 1936. It has a foot. It looks like you have a great find there, Whatho!

Whatho, you have found one heck of a piece! It is probably worth a small fortune. Venini is not cheap especially something made by a big designer and on top of it the piece is old. Battuto also drives up the price. Great job! :hiclp:

I had ordered Carlo Scarpa: Glass of an Architect, and it arrived today. I looked to see if this piece is in there under Battuto, and it's not, despite there being many other example. (BTW. Battuto is called Hammered in this book, a straight translation, I think, and was used first by Scarpa in 1940.) Deboni in his Veninni books doesn't include this shape in his pictures of battuto pieces, either. Also, as I mentioned, the Scarpa piece in "Venini" by Santillana does have a foot and I'm not sure whether your piece does.

What am I saying? I think your piece is Venini and fabulous, and it's probably worth more if it can shown to be by Scarpa. I wouldn't make that claim right now, although I wouldn't say it's not by Scarpa. If you're interested in finding out, my suggestion is to send a series of pictures to Venini and see what they say.